USPTO Patents Application 10782008

(19)

J

Europaiechee Patentamt
European Patent Office
Office europeen dee brevets

(12)

(11) EP 0 858 742 A2
EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(43) Date of publication:

(51) lntci.6: A23L 1/212, A23L 1/015,

19.08.1998 Bulletin 1998/34

/\23L 1/302

(21) Application number: 98301164.4

(22) Date of filing: 17.02.1998

(84) Designated Contracting States:

(72) Inventor: SuglsakI, TakashI

AT BE CH DE DK ES Fl FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC

Kawaguchi-shi, Saitama-ken (JP)

NL PT SE

Designated Extension States:

(74) Representative: Matthews, Derek Peter

AL LT LV MK RO SI

Frank B. Dehn & Co.,

European Patent Attorneys,

(30) Priority: 17.02.1997 JP 48383/97

179 Queen Victoria Street

London EC4V4EL (GB)

(71) Applicant: M-P-G. CO.. LTD.

Tokyo (JP)

(54) Nitrate-free powdered fruits or vegetables and manufacturing process therefor

(57) Vegetables and/or Fruit or macerated vegeta-
bles and/or fruit are washed with water which has
passed through Ion-exchange resins capable of remov-

ing NO3. and NO2. ions to remove nitrate nitrogen com-
pounds which are harmful to the human body and then
dried by freeze-drying.

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Printed by Jouva, 75001 mRIS (FR)

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EP 0 858 742 A2

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Description

The present invention relates to powdered vegeta-
bles and powdered fruits and a manufacturing process
therefor, wherein said powdered vegetables or pow-
dered fruit are free from nitrate nitrogen compounds
harmful to the human body and are added to or mixed
with other components helpful in maintaining health by,
for example, preventing senescence and reinforcing
blood vessels.

Recently, water pollution with nitrate nitrogen com-
pounds has become a serious social concern together
with ground water contamination with organochlorine
compounds such as trichloroethylene. Nitrate nitrogen
compounds which are contaminants of said ground wa-
ter and also derive from nitrogen fertilizers and pesti-
cides and also exist as nitrates and nitrites in organisms.

Thus, organic nitrogen contained in debris will pen-
etrate the soil, decompose into ammonia nitrogen there-
in and subsequently be oxidized to nltiBte via nitrite.

Therefore, nitrate nitrogen compounds are widely
distributed in many plants, particularly in vegetables and
fruit since nitrate nitrogen compounds are found in
ground water. Although they mainly exist as nitrates in
ground water, they are easily translocated together with
ground water, or nitrate nitrogen derived from fertilizers
or pesticides, taken up by plants and Incorporated Into
organisms.

The toxicity of these nitrates to humans is believed
to be due to reduction of nitrate by microorganisms in
the body to nitrites. It is well known that said nitrites not
only oxidize haemoglobin (which has an important role
as an oxygen transporter in blood) to methaemoglobin
(which lacks the oxygen transport ability, resulting In ox-
ygen deficiency in various organs), but also causes ad-
verse effect such as senescence of blood vessels. Fur-
ther, it is known that nitrites react In the stomach with
secondary amines which are non-carcinogens, to form
nitrosoamlnes which are carcinogens.

With ordinary methods of obtaining powdered veg-
etables or powdered fruit for use in making vegetable
and/or fruit juices or as food supplements, several meth-
ods exist; a method for f reeze-drying fresh fruit or veg-
etables followed by pulverizatk>n using a mill, a method
for drying fresh fruit or vegetables using a dryer followed
by pulverization using a mill, another method of squeez-
ing fresh fruit or vegetables avoiding decomposition of
components, f reeze-drying the resulting liquid followed
by further pulverization using a mill. There are however
no methods which deal with nitrate nitrogen compounds
harmful to the human body, contained in or deposited
on vegetables.

The object ot the present invention is to provide
powdered vegetables and/or powdered fruit and a man-
ufacturing process therefor, wherein said powdered
vegetables and/or fruit are free from nitrate nitrogen
compounds which are harmful to the human body and
contained in or deposited on fruit and vegetables, and

which may be added to or mixed with other components
effective in maintaining health.

In order to obtain such nitrate nitrogen free pow-
dered fruit or vegetables, in the manufacturing process
s according to the present invention, fruit and/or vegeta-
bles, preferably macerated fruit or vegetables, are
washed with water which has passed through an ion-
exchange resin capable of removing NO^' and Not-
ions to remove nitrate nitrogen and subsequently
freeze-dried and pulverized. The resultant powdered
fruit or vegetables may be supplemented with compo-
nents effective for maintaining a healthy life such as
blood vessel reinforcers and various vitamins.

Further, powdered fruit and/or vegetables accord-
ing to the present invention can usually be packed into
an air-tight container, a sealable plastic bag for example,
containing a volume sufficient to make one cup or glass,
or into other types of containers and be used as a bev-
erage after dissolving in water when necessary, or used
as a supplement for various foods, for example infant
food and hospital diets. They are also effective for solv-
ing deviant food habits, particular a dislike of fruit or veg-
etables.

Vegetables and fruit which may be used in the
present invention Include celery, komatsuna (Brassica
campestris, rap if era group), chingensai (B. campestris,
chinensis group), Garland chrysanthemum, parsley, let-
tuce, spinach, asparagus, carrot, Welsh onion, Chinese
cabbage, cabbage, Japanese homwort, Japanese
mugwort, tomato and other vegetables and fruits such
as apples.

The ion-exchange resins used to remove nitrate ni-
trogen compounds are anion-exchange resins capable
of removing NO^ and NO^- ions, for example a strong
basic ion-exchange resin (Cl-ion form).

Methods and results ot nitrate nitrogen compound
removal tests are presented below. The invention is not
however limited to these methods.

First, the method and results of nitrate nitrogen
compound removal test (1 ) used to remove nitrate nitro-
gen deposition on the surface of vegetables.
Nitrate Nitrogen Compound Removal Test (1)

(a) One hundred grams each of seven different veg-
etables (celery, komatsuna, chingensai, Garland
chrysanthemum, parsley, lettuce and spinach) were
weighed and equally divided into two portions.

(b) Seven containers filled with 6 liters of tap water
treated with said ion-exchange resin (hereinafter re-
ferred to as "purified water") and seven containers
filled with 6 liters of untreated tap water (hereinafter
referred to as "tap water") were prepared.

(c) Each of said fresh vegetable samples was thor-
oughly washed by hand in each container for 3 min-
utes.

(d) After removal of the fresh vegetable sample from
the container, the amount (mg/liter) of nitrate nitro-
gen in the washing water in the container was de-

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termined using pack-test equipment for water qual-
ity test (Kyouritsu Rika K.K.).
(e) Procedures (a) to (d) as above were repeated
until the amount of nitrate nitrogen compound in
said washing becomes 0. ^

Results obtained from the nitrate nitrogen com-
pound removal test (1) are presented In Table 1 at-
tached.

As is obvious from Table 1 , when washing with pu-
rified water was repeated, washing efficiency increased
every time and the amount of nitrate nitrogen in sard
washing water reduced to zero over 3 to 1 0 washes, de-
pending on the vegetable used. Therefore, it was con-
firmed that nitrate nitrogen compounds deposited on
fresh vegetables were completely removed. This was
true for dried vegetable separately tested.

On the other hand, where washing was done with
tap water, although it was expected that a small amount
of nitrate nitrogen compound might be released into the
washing at least for the first wash, a measurable amount
of nitrate nitrogen compound was not detected, proba-
bly because the level was too low to detect by the de-
termination method used. Even though said washing
was repeated further, the presence of nitrate nitrogen
compounds in the washing water could not be con-
firmed. Therefore, it was considered that nitrate nitrogen
compounds were not removed from the fresh vegeta-
bles.

The method and results of nitrate nitrogen com-
pound removal test (2) used to remove nitrate nitrogen
deposited on the surface of and contained in vegetables
is explained below.

Nitrate Nitrogen Compound Removal Test (2)

(a) One hundred grams each of 14 different vege-
tables or fruits (asparagus, tomato, carrot, apple,
Welsh onion, celery, komatsuna, chingensai, Gar-
land chrysanthemum, parsley, lettuce, spinach,
Chinese cabbage and Japanese homwort) were
weighed out.

(b) Each of said fruit or vegetable samples was cut
into a square pieces of about 1 x 1 cm and prepared
in an almost crushed state in a mortar, care being
taken to avoid decomposition of nutrients.

(c) 0.2 ml of the resulting extract of each vegetable
or fruit sample was diluted with said purified water
to 100 times. The concentration of nitrate nitrogen
compounds in this diluted extract was determined
spectroscopicalty using a simplified reflectance
spectrometer RQ Flex (Kanto Chemical Co.. Ltd.);
the test paper was dipped into the diluted extract for
2 seconds, excess water on the test paper was re-
moved and the paper was inserted into the equip-
ment.

(d) Extracted residue (mainly fiber components) re-
maining after the extract was separated according
to this method was diluted again with purified water

4

to 100 times and the concentration ot nitrate nitro-
gen compounds determined using said RQ Flex In
a similar way to the above, to confirm the amount
of nitrate nitrogen compounds remaining in the ex-
tracted residue of each vegetable or fruit sample.

Results of said nitrate nitrogen compound removal
test (2) are presented in Table 2 attached.

As is obvious from Table 2, nitrate nitrogen com-
pounds could be detected from each of said fresh fruit
or vegetable extracts; 460 mg/liter from lettuce extract
and a relatively high level of 1311 mg/liter from Japa-
nese homwort. It was however confirmed that the level
of nitrate nitrogen compounds in the purified water ex-
tracted residue of each vegetable or fruit sample, was
only of trace levels and below the detection limit of 0.3
mg/liter.

As is mentioned above, the manufacturing process
for producing powdered vegetables or fruit including the
steps to removing nitrate nitrogen compounds on the
surface of fruit or vegetables according to said nitrate
nitrogen compound removal test (1), folk^wed by drying
using a freeze-dryer as is commercially available, then
adding various components effective for maintaining a
healthy life such as blood vessel reinforcers and various
vitamins, can provide powdered vegetables and/or fruit
containing a significantly lower level of nitrate nitrogen
compound than other ordinary methods.

However, nitrate nitrogen compounds can also exist
in vegetable or fruit tissue. Preferably therefore, vege-
tables and fruit are cut as finely as possible to prepare
macerated fruit and vegetables, prepared to an almost
crushed state, washed with purified water according to
said nitrate nitrogen compound removal test (2), dried
using a treeze-dryer and then pulverized using, for ex-
ample, a mill, and then constituted by adding other var-
ious components are effective for maintaining a healthy
life such as blood vessel reinforcers and various vita-
mins.

As blood vessel reinforcers may be used for exam-
ple, rutin (synonym: vitamin P) which reinforces the con-
nective tissue of capillary blood vessels and can be used
in order to prevent senescence and for reinforcement of
blood vessels, chondrithion sulphuric acid (synonym:
chondroitin-protein complex) which activates arterial
wall cells and can be used in arterial sclerosis, particu-
larly in coronary artery sclerosis, also proanthocyazine
which is active in preventing hyperoxidation of lipids and
in eliminating active oxygen can be used. As nutritional
supplements, vitamins such as vitamin A, B-j, Bg, B^,
Bi2, E, C, niacin and folic acid can be added. Further-
more, zinc, iron, calcium and other nutrients essential
for healthy maintenance of the human body can be add-
ed.

As aforementioned, powdered vegetables and pow-
dered fruit according to the present invention are safe
to the human body and exhibit the health maintaining
goodness existing in fruit and vegetables when used not

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only in making up vegetable and fruit juices but also as
infant foods and hospital food after being dissolved in
water, because said fruit or vegetable juice is constituted
with fruit or vegetables after the nitrate nitrogen com-
pounds harmful to the human body are eliminated. s

Further, because components effective for a
healthy Irfe such as blood vessel reinforcers and various
vitamins can be added, powdered vegetables or pow-
dered fruit according to the present invention provides
various advantage effects such as prevention of blood io
vessel senescence, by for example elimination of active
oxygen, improved blood circulation, prevention of se-
nescence of blood vessels due to increase of hyperox-
idized lipid, enhancement of capillary bloodvessels, de-
crease of serum cholesterol and the like. Powdered veg- is
etables or powdered fruit according to the present In-
vention also provides reinforcing effect on blood vessels
and tissue cells.

Claims

1 . Powdered fruit and/or vegetables, characterised in
that the powdered vegetables or fruit are free from
nitrate nitrogen compounds, and wherein said pow- ^5
dered vegetables and/or fruit are optionally mixed
with or added to bkxxJ vessel reinforcers and/or var-
ious vitamins.

2. A manufacturing process for powdered vegetables 30
and/or powdered fruit, characterised in that the veg-
etables and/or fruit are washed with water which
has passed through ion-exchange resins capable

of removing NO^- and NO^- ions, said washed veg-
etables and/or fruit are dried by freeze-drying and 35
pulverized using, for example, a mill and are option-
ally added to or mixed with blood vessel reinforcers
and/or various vitamins.

3. A manufacturing process for powdered vegetables 40
and/or powedered fruit as described in claim 2,
characterised in that said fruit and/or vegetables are
macerated.

4. Fruit and/or vegetable juice prepared by reconstitu- ^
tion of a powdered fruit and/or vegetable according

to claim 1 .

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EP 0 858 742 A2

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EP 0 858 742 A2

[Table 2]

Concentration (mg/L) of nitrate nitrogens

Vegetables

Extract

Residue

Vegetables

Extract

Residue

celeiy

751

N.D.

asparagus

1

N.D.

komatsuna

1066

N.D.

tomato

9

N.D.

chingemai

744

N.D.

carrot

828

N.D.

Gailand
chrysanthemum

633

N.D.

Wdsb onioa

598

N.D.

parsley

874

N.D.

Japanese homwort

1311

N.D.

lettuce

460

N.D.

apple

13

N.D

spinach

989

Chinese cabbage

598

N.D.

N.D.: not detected (<0.3nigflL)

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